Since the ancient people believed that ” Heaven was round and the earth was square”, so the main buildings in the Temple of Heaven are circular shaped, but surround by a square wall or round wall. The surrounding wall of the Temple of Heaven is semicircular to the north and square shaped to the south. All these represent the ancient believe that Heaven was round and the Earth was square.
The Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests(祈年殿）
The Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests was fisrt built in 1420. At that time it was a rectangular shaped building, named as the Hall of Great Sacrifice. In 1530, after Emperor Jiajing built the Temple of Earth in Beijing, only Heaven was worshiped here. Later in 1539, the Hall of Great Sacrifice was rebuilt into a circular hall with triple eaves, and then it was renamed the Hall of Great Enjoyment. The three-layered eaves were in three different colors that had three different meanings. The top layer was in blue color, symbolizing Heaven; the middle layer was in yellow, representing the emperor, and the bottom layer was in green signifying the common people.
In 1751, Qing Emperor Qianlong rebuilt this hall again. He changed all the three layers of the roof into the same color–dark blue, just to symbolize the color of the sky. After that, the hall was given the present name–the Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests. But unfortunately, this hall was burnt down again by lightning, so in 1896, it was rebuilt according to the original design.
The Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests is 32 meters high. It is completely made of wood even without using of a single nail. This is a dovetail structure joined together by a number of wooden bars, laths, brackets, mortise and tenon joints and rafters.
This building is supported by 28 massive wooden pillars. The 28 wooden pillars symblize 28 constellations in the sky. The 4 pillars i the center are the thickest, 18.5 meters high and 1.2 meters in diameter, known as the ” Dragon-Well Pillars.” The space between each of the four pillars symbolize the four seasons of the year.
Twelve pillars encircling the 4 Dragon-Well Pillars make the second ring, known as the Golden Pillars. Each space between the 12 pillars represents 12 month of the year. Surrounding Golden Pillars are 12 Eave-pillars. The 12 spaces between these pillars symbolize the 12 divisions of day and night (two-hours was treated as one period in traditional Chinese way of calculating time. So in Chinese we called it ‘the 12 two-hour periods’ in the old Chinese way).
The big round marble stone in the center of the floor is known as the Dragon and Phoenix Stone, because the natural grain and ink pattern looks very much like a dragon and a phoenix. During the worshipping ceremony, the emperor would stand on this stone and kneel down to pray for a good harvest.The tablet of the God of Heaven was placed to the north of the Dragon and Phoenix Stone and the tablets of the emperor’s ancestors were placed on each side.
Outside the Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests, there are two annex halls on both sides. There were the places for keeping the tablets of the Gods of the sun, the moon, the stars and the tablets of the Gods of wind, clouds, rain, thunder and lightning. Now they are two exhibition rooms.
The Circular Mound Altar(圜丘坛）
The Circular Mound Altar was built in 1530 in the Ming Dynasty. Every year on the Winter solstice the emperor would come here to offer a solemn sacrifice to worship Heaven. Sometimes the emperor came here to pray for rain on summer solstice when there was a drought year.
The Circular Mound Altar is 5 meters high, enclosed by double walls. The inner wall is round while the outer wall is square. This layout symbolize that Heaven was round and the Earth was square i ancient believing.
The Circular Mound Altar is a three-tiered marble altar. The topmost layer is 30 meters in diameter, the middle layer is 50 meters, and the bottom layer is 70 meters with four entrances in four directions. There are nine steps on each terrace leading down.
There are altogether 3,402 pieces of stone slabs paved on the Altar, all related with the number nine of multiples of nine. On the topmost terrace in the center, there is a piece of round stone slab known as Heavenly Heart Stone, which is surrounded by nine rings of fan-shaped stone slabs. The first ring consists of 9 blocks of stone slabs; the second ring has 18 pieces of stone slabs, while the third ring has 27, then there are multiples of the number nine until the 9th ring. The second terrace shows another 9 circles. It starts from the 10th ring to the 18th ring. The bottom terrace begins from the 19th ring to the 27th ring. Totally, there are 378 nines with 3,402 pieces of stone slabs that paved on three terraces. Further more, there are totally 360 balusters carved on the Altar, which stand for the 360 degrees of circumference of Heaven.
The Heavenly Heart Stone is the central point of the Circular Mound Altar. If you stand on the Heavenly Heart Stone and speak in a normal voice, you can hear your voice much louder to yourself than to others standing by. That is because the surface of the Altar is very smooth, so the sound waves spread in different directions and are sent back immediately by the marble balustrades to focus at the center.
The Echo Wall(回音壁）
The wall surrounding the Imperial Vault of Heaven is the famous Echo Wall. It is 3.7 meters high and 90 centimeters thick. If one person speaks in his normal voice at any point close to the wall, another person will be able to hear the voice clearly at other end because the wall can send the sound traveling along the wall. The reason is: the wall is round, it has eaves on the top, it is very thick and it is hard and smooth on the surface, and all the bricks are hermetically laid.
---------------------------------------------------------------Author: AmoyTrip.com--Main Buildings in the Temple of Heaven
Free Inquiry: ryan@amoytrip.com
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